Lords of the Force
by Qoheleth
Summary: The great Jedi creation myth that Qui-Gon Jinn made a lot of people very unhappy by not knowing.


**Disclaimer:** There is no possession; there is fanfic.

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 _"Size matters not. Look at me! Judge me by my size, do you?"_

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A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away… That is how the stories that you know begin. Some of these stories are good, others not so good; some edify, others corrupt; some are true, and some… well, perhaps our memory limps. But none of them would be stories at all, were it not for another story – one that began a longer time ago and farther yet away, and in the place from which all galaxies spring.

Ah, how wild it was! All was yet fluid then, molten and chaotic; matter careened from zone to zone, untamed by law or affection. Yet, even then, there were patterns implicit in the fabric of being – paths for the universe to take or bypass, shapes that it might or might not take on. As time passed, one such pattern came to the fore – dare any as mere as we say how? – and began to harmonize matter and glory according to the logic that was its own.

And in the unfolding of that pattern, we began – we, Eldest of all, the Livers-before-Life. Our forebears awoke within the heart of the Great Egg Nebula, and were four in number: Ab, knower of things great and small; Zamin, contemplator of things heavy and light; Hava, understander of things swift and slow; Atash, rejoicer in things bright and dim. They awoke, and they perceived the mighty powers of creation that surrounded them – and, in that moment of perception, they felt those powers enter into them as well.

Then the four of them explored the Nebula for others like themselves; yet they found none, for there were, as yet, none to find. So Zamin and Hava said to Ab and Atash, "See, we are alone in this place, and there is none to tell us how to use the powers we have received. Yet it seems to us that this place is good, and its pattern beautiful; thus, to fill this place with that which its pattern decrees must be a praiseworthy deed. Let us therefore fill matter with the Force that is in us, and cause it to grow and to perceive according to its kind; only thus shall we be worthy of the blessing of existence."

But Ab and Atash laughed at them, and said, "Shall we devote our energies to embellishing a whim of fortune? Well do we perceive that this place is but one of many that might have been; though it seems beautiful in itself, yet it may well appear loathsome beside those it displaced. Let us therefore use our Force rather to restore the original chaos, that we may choose and bring into being the best of all possible places; only thus shall our deeds be worthy of our liberty and power."

So there was a division among them, and Zamin and Hava traveled to the brighter edge of the Nebula, while Ab and Atash took up residence in its dark side. Then all four proliferated, and brought forth countless multitudes of offspring, which filled the Nebula from end to end – and the Nebula itself blossomed and fruited, dividing into a host of worlds and suns and minute grains of matter, until it had become that cosmos of vast and spinning galaxies that now occupies so much of space. Only the offspring of the Four remained as they had begun, imperceptible to matter in its new state, yet surrounding all and binding all together.

Yet still, and always, the conflict endured – the perpetual struggle between the Bright Edge and the Dark Side. As steadily as the offspring (both lineal and adoptive) of Zamin and Hava worked to make their universe yet more gloriously itself, so tirelessly did those of Ab and Atash, in the pride of their hearts, seek to dissolve and unmake it. On all levels of being the struggle was waged: while the Bright Edge attacked Atash's armory of quantum black holes with Force-resonant neutrino streams, the Dark Side would subvert Zamin's order of Jedi warriors through their passions of rage and despair. Sometimes the advantage would swing to one party, sometimes to the other, but neither could ever decisively prevail – and so the universe has remained as it is, neither decaying back into primal darkness, nor ever achieving the full glory it might have had.

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And now you know, Master Jedi, what your life has meant. Now you know, as the living may never know, what manner of creatures they were that dwelt in your fleshly body, clothed in the apparent forms of tiny, jade-and-emerald animalcula. You know whence the whispers came that told you how best to serve the forces of life – and you know, also, why some of those whispers spoke rather of the service of death. And, knowing this, you have a wisdom and a power greater than your slayer could possibly imagine.

For this is our last gift to those who have served us well: that they may be sustained by our power, and freed from the limitations of crude matter. They travel unhindered throughout the cosmos, and, all unseen, bless and strengthen those they have left behind. Go, then, and do likewise.

The Bright Edge shall uphold you.

The Law of Life shall instruct you.

And the Lords of the Force – the mighty and awful Midichloria – shall be with you, always.


End file.
